7. ‘Moved by the example of these wise men of old.’ For this use of ‘ensampled’ cp. Traitié, xv. l. 4,
‘Pour essampler les autres du present.’
13. Who that al &c. ‘If one writes of wisdom only’: a common form of expression in Gower’s French and English both; see note on Mirour, 1244. In English we have ‘who that,’ ‘who so (that)’ or ‘what man (that),’ sometimes with indic. and sometimes with subjunctive: cp. Prol. 460, 550, i. 383, 481, ii. 88, iii. 971, 2508, &c. See also note on l. 460.
writ, present tense, syncopated form.
16. if that ye rede, ‘if ye so counsel me,’ i.e. if you approve, equivalent to the ‘si bon vous sembleroit’ of the Mirour, l. 33.
24. The marginal note is wanting in F and S, and may perhaps have been added after the year 1397, when Henry became Duke of Hereford, cp. ‘tunc Derbie comiti,’ or even later, for in the Cron. Tripertita Gower calls him Earl of Derby at the time of his exile, using the same expression as here, ‘tunc Derbie comiti.’ Caxton, followed by Berthelet, gives the following: ‘Hic in primis declarat Ioannes Gower quam ob causam presentem libellum composuit et finaliter compleuit, An. regni regis Ric. secundi 16.’
31. That is, compared with what it was in former time: cp. l. 133.
41. write ... stode: subjunctive. For the subjunctive in indirect question cp. ii. 1243, 1943, iii. 708, 771, &c.
43. as who seith, i.e. ‘as one may say,’ a qualification of what follows, ‘a gret partie’: the phrase is a common one, e.g. i. 1381, ‘as who seith, everemo,’ 2794, ii. 696, ‘as who seith, ded for feere,’ &c.
46. schewen, used absolutely, ‘set forth their histories.’